Missouri Department of Conservation offers hunting permit options

COLUMBIA - Missouri's Department of Conservation offers an Apprentice Hunter Program which allow adults 16 and over to try the sport of hunting before they are required to take a hunter education class.

This program allows people who are not hunter certified to purchase hunter authorization for ten dollars. This authorization allows people to then purchase a hunting permit, allowing them to hunt with a properly licensed adult who is hunter education certified.

Tom Strother is the Protection Regional Supervisor for the Department of Conservation and said people who do not get hunting permits after they purchase a hunter authorization might be subject to a citation if they are caught hunting wildlife.

"If somebody is just out in the woods with just a hunter authorization, they could be subject to a citation because they actually don't have the permit to deer hunt or to turkey hunt," Strother said. "That's one of the penalties of somebody who doesn't complete the whole process of getting that ten dollar authorization and then getting that permit to participate in that deer or turkey season."

Hunter authorization is good for two years before the holder is required to take hunter education and become certified to purchase permits on their own.

Strother said the program aims to let people try the sport of hunting before they commit to the hunter certification class.